Gardeners' Notes:

This is an excellent plant for containers. It didn't get as large as some are saying. Only about 18 inches, but then I was harvesting a lot. Even in the high desert, it took the 100-plus heat and even withstood colder temperatures well into November, far longer than my other basils.
I originally found it at Kroger in Albuquerque, of all places. I had no idea how hard it would be to find again, or I would have rooted one indoors over the winter.
It roots in water on the windowsill in a matter of days from woody cuttings. I cut some for cooking and stuck the leftover stalks in a jar of water until I could use the rest. 2 days later I saw roots! I was potting it up and giving it away to everyone I know. Unfortunately, none of us brought it inside for the winter!
So full ... read moreof flavor. Works in Thai and Italian dishes, fresh and dried. The pesto I made from it with local pinon (pine) nuts was out of this world. And I found it really easy to harvest, just stripping the woody stalks like I would rosemary.
Like someone else said, if I could only have one basil, it would be this one.

Growing one using one of those cheap-o tomato cages for support. Plant has completely outgrown the cage and is now a little over 40 inches tall.

I took a cutting last fall from a neighbor's plant and easily grew it indoors and from that plant took cutting to create three more plants to give away. The one neighbor growing it in a pot has a much smaller plant of course that seems to be doing okay with no support.

2017 update. Plant is flowering which is a first for me. I assume the seeds will be sterile but I will try and collect some and see if any will sprout.

This basil is a mainstay every year in the Herb Garden at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. It has good basil flavor and produces abundant foliage on tall columnar plants. I take cuttings before first frost each year and easily root them in sterile potting mix in the greenhouse. By spring I have good-sized gallon plants to put back in the garden for the warm seasons. If I could have only ONE type of basil (and I normally grow around ten different types) this would be it.

I bought this from farther north as O. b. "Greek Columnar" last spring. I bought five, but I didn't need to. This plant here grows nearly 3' tall and is strictly columnar until the branches get too heavy. They break and flop over, I cut them away and hang them upside down to dry or stick them in the ground where they root very readily here.

If you love to cook with basil, this is your plant. You don't have to cut off flowers. You have to cut the plant back. It is accepting of pot culture, so would be easy to protect where not hardy. It is ridiculously easy to get more of. It is highly aromatic, stronger than annual basils (I've grown many kinds) and more complicated. I don't cook, but luckily I know lots of people who do! :-)

A tender perennial basil that does not bloom. Small green leaves with purple veins. Propagated by cuttings. An unusual scented basil. The fragrance is spicy, of cinnamon, allspice and cloves,and even citrusy. Columnar growth habit.